Secret Chamber

by Elise Chadwick

Image: “Somewhat Indignant 2” by Edward Michael Supranowicz

I’ve been thinking about your heart

all morning, since you whispered

your secret to me in the damp artery

of the ladies locker room

before our side-by-side laps

in the pool.

I’m imagining you wrapped

in a crinkly paper gown, brow

wrinkled when you hear the news.

Defective since birth. Congenital.

You never knew that you were

in danger with every inhalation.

I doubt you would have lived

or loved differently had you known

your foot race might be a sprint. 

You would still run four marathons,

feet pounding down city blocks,

breathing deep, reveling in the beats

of your expansive heart.

---

Elise Chadwick taught English at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, NY for 30 years. She lives in NYC. Her poems have been recently published in The New York Times, Healing Muse, Naugatuck River Review and The English Journal. You can find more of her poetry at elisechadwick.com and in her chapbook Poems on the Precipice (Kelsay Press).

Edward Michael Supranowicz is the grandson of Irish and Lithuanian/Ukrainian immigrants. He grew up on a small farm in Appalachia. He has a grad background in painting and printmaking. Some of his artwork has recently or will soon appear in Fish Food, Streetlight, Another Chicago Magazine, Door Is A Jar, The Phoenix, and The Harvard Advocate. Edward is also a published poet with over 700 poems published and multiple Pushcart Prize nominations.